Thursday, April 27, 2006

Miss Handywoman 2006


Major life achievement # 54 - constructing furniture by myself!

On Sunday the weather was miserable, so I decided it was a good time to head to Argos (like Ikea but bigger and better). I picked up a bookcase and a bedside table for my room. Now the thing is, its pre packaged furniture that comes in a flat pack. You get the pieces cut to size, the nails, the dowel, the screws, the instructions... and then you're left to make it. I was considering calling my Dad to tell him I was making some furniture up, but I realised that I'd probably be drowned out at the other end with hysterical laughter. Yes, I am that bad. As in, I have trouble hammering a nail straight into a plank of wood.

When God was handing out the handyman gene I completely missed out, ironic seeing as Dad owns and runs a hardware store! I've never even taken a woodwork class in my life, banging together bits of wood was never my thing. I hate reading instructions and would much prefer to skip ahead or figure it out myself. Why I decided all of a sudden to make some furniture is beyond me?

I assumed making a 3 drawer bedside table and a bookcase would be a fairly simple exercise. After pulling all the contents from the boxes I began to get worried. There were things I didn't even know existed in there, plus some very complicated looking furniture manual. But I got stuck into it, without anyone's help or guidance.

A few days later and I have finally finished both pieces (with a few mistakes along the way, which have all been fixed). I have to say I'm pretty impressed with myself - who knew that the heel of your ballet flats could be used as a substitute for a hammer?! The bookcase is level, the nails are hammered in straight, the bedside drawers slide in perfectly and you can't actually tell that I put it together!

So here they are, made by me...

Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Lest We Forget


It feels weird waking up today and not hearing anything about ANZAC Day. I was even asked the other day by one of the British deputy principals what its all about, so I doubt there'll be anything on TV about it tonight! Did anyone go to a dawn service? They had one on in Hyde Park but I wasn't keen on making my way there alone at 4am on public transport (I miss my car today!).

3 of my flatmates left for 11 days in Turkey on Saturday morning, they would have been in Gallipoli this morning for the service. I definitely want to go to Gallipoli/Turkey at some stage next year but lots of people say its better to go on any other day but ANZAC Day, yet heaps of others say this is the best time to go? They were estimating something like 20 000 were attending?

We have new people in the house at the moment - they are in the girls' rooms for 2 weeks while the girls are away. There's a guy from Melbourne, a Kiwi couple and an English girl. Its funny how people have there own little quirks about minor stuff that you just need to get used to - its good in some ways but also makes you appreciate your everyday housemates that sometimes you whinge about! Its cool having a couple of guys in the house, just for a change. Plus one of them is a footy fan (Demons) so at last I have someone in the house to talk to about the week's results! I did hear today that the Magpies won the ANZAC Day battle at the MCG?

Happy World Penguin Day as well!!!

Thursday, April 20, 2006

4 days in France

I thought I would take you through some of the highlights and lowlights of my time in Paris...seeing as I have some interesting stories!

Highlights
* Walking up (and back down) the Eiffel Tower - all 700 stairs! Worth every penny!
* Seeing the Mona Lisa at the Louvre, with 7 security guards surrounding the room and screaming in French everytime someone took an unauthorised photo of the painting (subsequently getting kicked out for breaking the rules). Its quite ironic that this painting is so revered and yet it was originally meant to hang in someone's toilet!!! Also much bigger than I expected, I think because everyone always goes on about how tiny it is, when really its just an average size painting.
* Eating a Nutella crepe everyday! They are so good, especially in cold weather (when they're made fresh off the hotplate). If you want to be really indulgent you can get a huge Belgian waffle drizzled in chocolate as well for only 3 Euro! Add on the croissants, baguettes...its not hard to see why 90% of the French diet seems to be carbohydrates.
* Watching the girls I hung out with on the tour eating frogs legs and snails - no thanks! I'll stick to my creme brulee and French onion soup.
* Seeing the Eiffel Tower "sparkle" (as I called it) every night on the hour - one of the most gorgeous things I have ever witnessed in my life.
* Going to a French cabaret show and seeing the authentic Can-Can.
* Seeing the city at night. Everything is lit up at night with gorgeous white lights and its stunning. The Opera House looks best at night, its the place that inspired 'Phantom of the Opera' as they discovered an underground lake while building it!
* Going on a cruise down the Seine River (despite it raining heavily towards the end) and seeing all the ponts (bridges) lit up at night.
* Eating great food and drinking great wine every night at awesome little restaurants and cafes in the Latin quarter. You get charged more for service/food the closer you get to the sidewalk though! This is because the French are obsessed with watching people go by - the seats around a table all face the street rather than facing each other because of this.
* Walking down the Champs Elysee/Arc De Triomphe and looking at all the lavish store window displays. The shop signs down the street used to be all white neon lights until recently (most still are white), as a tribute to Neon who invented the neon sign/light. It has the only McDonalds in the world which has non-gold arches (in picture, cooler at night).
* Looking around the Notre Dame Cathedral and admiring all the gothic architecture and stained glass windows. No sign of the hunchback though.

Lowlights
* Being harassed by a group of scammers at the bottom of the Sacre Coeur. These guys hang around in packs and target females. They give you loads of compliments, distract you and tie a piece of coloured cotton in a knot on your finger, or make you a bracelet. They then demand disgusting amounts of money (like 10 Euro or more) to either cut the knot off or to 'buy' the bracelet. They are incredibly aggressive and quite frightening if you have no idea about them. Luckily we we warned, but all of our tour group still had trouble with them. After telling them several times to go away, I told an old lady who was being spoken to by one guy to walk away. The guy was obviously pissed off at me and began walking after me, screaming 'British bitch' and threatening me. I told him in no uncertain terms where to go and kept walking. His mate also followed me and I had to quickly scamper into a French cafe to get away from them. Luckily the cafe owner realised what was going on and yelled at them in French. Some of the guys on our tour also saw what happened and formed a ring around me so I could leave without any trouble (my bodyguards! Haha). It was still quite scary and really put me off ever going back into that area again.
* The beggars and gypsies that hang around ALL the touristy areas. I've never encountered so many scammers in my life, and it really made me wary of my bags/belongings every time I went somewhere. Gypsies would work in packs and try to show you a picture of something asking where it was, while the others would try to snatch your belongings. At the Palace of Versailles hundreds of merchants would surround your bus and ask you to buy all their crappy French souvenirs - glow in the dark Eiffel Towers, keyrings, general junky items including this bizarre flying bird that was the colours of the French flag!
* Being charged 7 Euro just to walk around the gardens of the Palace of Versailles (because it was Easter and the place was packed with thousands of tourists - I have never seen so many tour coaches in my life!).

Randoms
* Seeing the house/apartment where Jim Morrison died.
* One of the girls in our group had a massive seizure just as our bus was about to leave the hotel Sunday morning for the Palace of Versailles. She made this horrible screaming sound and then fell face first to the floor (doesn't remember a thing). Ambulance came, she had to go to hospital and apparently this has happened to her before and she just brushed it off!? If I blacked out and woke up on the floor previously, I'd be a tad worried personally!
* Fouquets is the restaurant on the Champs Elysee where Jackie O met Mr Onassis and hence became Jackie O.
* Saw the Ritz Hotel where Princess Diana & Dodi Al Fayed spent their last night before being killed in a car crash in a Parisian tunnel (which we didn't see).
* All the shops were closed Friday & Sunday due to Easter, so I only managed to get photos of the Louis Vuitton store (which is stunning inside). When you go shopping in there, you are only allowed to purchase 2 bags - apparently to make it more exclusive? Do they realise the amount of 15 year old girls walking around Garden City with spot on fakes?!
* The Palace of Versailles cost the entire French national income earnt in 6 months to build! King Louis 14th and Marie Antoinette moved there after finding their old palace 'too small' (you should see it too, small psssht). They had 5 000 servants, 5 000 chefs and 10 000 rooms!
* Napoleon's Tomb is solid gold at the top spire of the building (see the pics below). The whole thing!
* Napoloeon built most extravagant things in Paris. You name it, he created it. Totally egotistical!
* I was warned about the amount of dog poo on the streets of Paris, yet I hardly saw any? I think London is far worse!
* Lots of homeless people - we saw little villages of tents/cardboard houses on the way to/from out hotel everyday. Some were sleeping on the concrete, chairs, above the grates where the underground train runs (for warmth).

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Snapshots of Paris



Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Happy Easter


This will probably be the last chance I have to put an entry on before I go to Paris first thing Friday morning, so I'd like to wish everyone a happy Easter and please eat loads of chocolate eggs on my behalf (because I will be gorging myself silly on baguettes, croissants & nutella crepes all weekend = death by carbohydrates!).

Not much has really been happening this week, trying not to spend too much money before the weekend and taking it easy - meaning lots of TV time! Caught up with Neighbours and Home & Away, but we are so far behind here. The latest episodes were about Hayley having her baby in a caravan and Harold revealing to Paul that he was the one who tried to kill him. As bad as they are, they make you feel at home again!

PS: The Easter bunny cartoon is courtesy of Frances, who I'm sure is working hard on all her uni assignments (although she still hasn't told me how the D&D ball was?!).

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

You're nuts


I have spent the last few days (on school holidays) being a tourist in this city. The weather has been very kind to me, not overly warm but at least sunny for most of the time! Today was gorgeous, it was so nice to stroll around Buckingham Palace and the parks that surround it with the sun streaming down.

St. James' Park is beautiful - all sorts of flowers blooming, ducks and birds of all shapes and sizes swimming in the big lake and so many squirrels running around, I couldn't believe it! You can actually buy a bag of peanuts and feed them, which is so cute. As I was wandering around the park I spotted a squirrel and decided to start whistling to it. It came bounding up to me, jumped on the top of the small lawn fence and looked straight up at me! I was so shocked at how bold and fearless it was, then panicked it might jump on me thinking I was a huge nut (haha). But I managed to get the most amazing photo of the squirrel! You can see it up the top, but its so much better in its real, bigger size (click on the picture to enlarge it if you want). Totally captured that moment.

I didn't spot Prince William while at the palace, but did manage to get some random Italian guy asking me if I wanted to go out for a coffee or a drink after briefly walking past him! They really are so upfront, I don't like it!

I have to go back to Buckingham Palace tomorrow as the 'changing of the guard' wasn't on today. I did see the Royal Horse Guard though, which was very formal and pompous (you should see the big black boots the guards wear!). I spent Monday at Big Ben, Westminster Abbey and the London Eye - will definitely have to go up the London Eye when the weather is really clear and sunny though! Still have to see the Tower of London, Kensington Palace and Harrods (I've been told they sell the infamous Krispy Kremes and everyone keeps telling me to try one) before next Thursday.

I also bought my first hat the other day! I am so anti-hats at home (hate them and they hate me), but that's because you only wear summer hats and they're always so daggy (unless you're going to the races and even then, fascinators are much prettier). You never get to wear hats in winter in Perth! Over here there are so many kinds of hats, in so many colours, fabrics and styles. So I caved and got one - a chocolate brown suede baker boy cap, which will also be good for hiding bad hair days (which are frequent in London)!

Slowly I'm putting together an online photo album of all the photos I have taken so far. I'm just in the process of arranging them and adding footnotes to each. As soon as it's finalised, I'll send everyone an email with the website address.

Not long until Paris!

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Happy Birthday Mum!


You didn't think I'd just let it go, did you?!

xox Michelle

Monday, April 03, 2006

And the winner is...


Oxford (pictured) won the annual Boat Race, don't ask me by how much because we only saw the start of the race and then spent the next hour trying to figure out who actually won!